Saturday, January 9, 2016

Helmut Benkendorff Welcoming Ceremony

In August 1943 Oberfeldwebel Helmut Benkendorff, a pilot in 5.Staffel /
II.Gruppe / Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 (StG 2), reached a significant
milestone, completing his 500th combat mission. The photo shows
Oberfeldwebel Benkendorff - "Mucki" to his friends - immediately after
landing. With the flowers in hand, he receives the congratulations from
the Staffelkapitän of 7./StG 1, Leutnant Willi Viertel (left), for the
benefit of the photographers. The four wings on Benkendorff's left sleeve identify him as an Oberfeldwebel. Only a few days later, on 31 August 1943,
Willi Viertel was shot down by ground fire while attacking enemy tanks near
Glukhov. His aircraft (Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" D-3, Werknummer 2279)
sustained a direct hit and crashed from a height of 300 meters. Viertel
and his gunner, Oberfeldwebel Heinrich Hippe, were both killed. Helmut
Benkendorff was later promoted to the rank of Leutnant and on 26 March
1944 was awarded the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knight's Cross of
the Iron Cross) after more than 600 feindflügen (combat missions). He
would completed 666 feindflüge by the end of the war. This photo itself was taken by an unidentified Hauptmann of the
Gruppenstab who was taken prisoner in southern Germany in May 1945.
There American soldiers took from him several rolls of exposed, but
undeveloped, film. The film was later developed by Kodak in the USA, and
decades after that a collector discovered the collection by chance. The
photographs were subsequently returned to Germany, albeit in poor
condition. Another pictures from the same event: 1, 2, 3.